Sweetwater to take on overcrowding in east side schools
For years, and despite the public passing lavish bond propositions, the schools on the west side of Sweetwater Union High School District languished. In partial consequence, parents transferred their students to east side schools seeking improved opportunities for their children.
Federal legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), exacerbated the problem. Under NCLB schools were challenged to improve their test scores annually or be put on the Needs Improvement list. As test scores dropped on the west side, students moved eastward.
Former superintendent Ed Brand promulgated an Open Boundary policy which ultimately resulted in east side schools bursting at the seams while many west side schools were under enrolled.
For the past several years east side parents have raised the issue that there are not enough classrooms, bathrooms, desks, chairs, books, even minutes in the lunch hour, for students. Parents have also complained about the traffic jams associated with high enrollment. Meanwhile, under-enrolled west side schools became vulnerable to co-location.
How are Sweetwater trustees and administrators going to split the baby—or put the baby back together?
At the August 11 school board meeting, there was a Facilities Meeting report, which provoked a pointed discussion among the trustees. The Facilities committee is tasked with prioritizing the structural needs of schools as well as plotting out the need for new schools. They are also redesigning a boundary map for the district. Staff brought back several options for boundary maps.
Based on attendance areas, the map will ultimately eliminate or realign optional transfer areas. Trustee Paula Hall emphasized that the creating the boundary map will be a lengthy process and will involve public input.
After the Facilities report, trustee Frank Tarantino commented, “I am pleased to see the initial draft of a new boundary map.” However, Tarantino believes it’s urgent to speed up the process because schools in the east and Castle Park are being negatively impacted by boundary problems. Tarantino elaborated on the problems:
“I don’t know how many more re-locatables [portable classrooms] we can put on campuses east of 805. Parents are concerned. Last I heard Eastlake High was at 3,096 students. It was only built for 2400 max. Even though we are making strides like putting in supporting buildings like bathrooms, I would respectfully disagree [with the committee report]…this has to come back to us sooner rather than later.
Tarantino went on to urge the Facilities Committee to come back with a plan by January so that east side schools could get some mitigation for next year.
Tarantino added, “It’s not going to be without controversy. There will be a number of poison pills to swallow, not only in terms of boundaries, but also transfer issues—things like senior privileges, family togetherness, all these kinds of things that have been used to skew our population, sucking students from the west and bringing them to the east. For me, it’s a front burner item because of the way it negatively impacts schools that I represent, but I think it negatively impacts everybody else’s schools because it draws students away from their home schools as well.”
Taking up the point of the actual facilities, trustee Nicholas Segura said, “A lot of these parents have been sending their kids away from west side schools because they’re crap [the buildings], and they’re old buildings even though the education is great.”
Trustee Paula Hall came at the problem from another angle. She said, “Nobody wants to delay what’s right for our students, but the key is we need to address program equity. During the recession a lot of [academic] program cuts were made. I know a lot of cuts occurred around the International Baccalaureate program at Castle Park High.”
Moises Aguirre, Sweetwater’s Assistant Superintendent of Business, echoed Hall’s opinion in an August 14 phone conversation. He said, “It is important for our district to build academic programs…we need to build up community schools and attract the parents back to their attendance areas.”
California passed an open enrollment law in 2010 which allows for student choice if a student is enrolled in an underperforming school. This law complicates the question of boundaries and over enrolled or under enrolled schools.
Part of the solution to east side crowding will be the building of new schools. Aguirre said the district has acquired approximately 25 acres for a new school along Hunte Parkway. Previously, the district had looked at building a 7-12 facility on the site. However, Aguirre says the district is re-visiting that idea.
The Facilities Committee is also working on comprehensive maps that color code the work that has been done on Sweetwater schools. The coding will indicate which proposition monies, or Mello-Roos monies have been spent on school upgrades. Some of the partially completed maps can be viewed on the district website:
The district will be seeking public input on these difficult facility decisions in October and November.
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